You received a letter from the SBA about your PPP loan. Or worse, from the FBI or the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware in Wilmington. They’re questioning whether your employees were real, whether your payroll figures matched your tax returns, whether you spent the funds on payroll as promised. You need to understand whether federal prosecutors in Delaware are actually filing criminal charges over pandemic-era loan applications that you submitted in good faith during economic chaos, what prison time and financial penalties you’re facing if they are, and whether hiring an attorney who defends federal cases nationwide—not just Delaware—makes any difference when the federal system operates identically across districts. Understanding what Delaware federal prosecutors are actually doing with PPP fraud investigations requires seeing these cases play out across multiple federal districts, not just reading one jurisdiction’s public filings. Not what the statutes technically allow, but what charges they’re filing and what sentences judges are imposing. Todd Spodek, a second-generation criminal defense attorney who learned federal practice from his father and has spent his entire career defending clients against federal fraud prosecution, leads Spodek Law Group’s nationwide federal defense practice with over 50 years of combined experience including former federal prosecutors who understand how the government builds these cases. They know what evidence the U.S. Attorney’s Office values and where weaknesses exist that can prevent charges from being filed or convince prosecutors to reduce them. When you’re facing potential federal prosecution in Delaware for a PPP loan you thought was legitimate emergency relief during a pandemic, the constitutional protections that matter most are your Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during the investigation and your Sixth Amendment right to effective counsel who understands federal procedure. They aren’t theoretical. They’re your only defense against a system that convicts 95-97% of defendants who go to trial. Call 212-300-5196. Delaware has one federal district with a single courthouse—the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building in Wilmington—where the U.S. Attorney’s Office handles all federal prosecutions throughout the state. Whether you’re in Wilmington, Dover, Newark, or a smaller Delaware community, the same prosecutors evaluate your case. Recent Delaware federal court cases show aggressive prosecution: Jady Solano, a 43-year-old Wilmington tax preparer, was sentenced on July 28, 2025, to 80 months federal prison for orchestrating a $9.1 million PPP fraud scheme involving 62 fraudulent applications; Michael Coleman, a 43-year-old former Sergeant with the Wilmington Police Department, pleaded guilty on February 1, 2024, to fraudulently obtaining a $150,000 PPP loan; Shatoya Moss received 18 months in June 2025; and Crandall Speights was sentenced on September 18, 2025, to 70 months for amassing over $900,000 through six fraudulent applications. These cases demonstrate Delaware prosecutors are filing criminal charges for loans ranging from $150,000 to over $9 million, which means if you received even a modest PPP loan and the SBA audit flagged discrepancies between your application and your tax returns or payroll records, you’re at serious risk of federal prosecution. This prosecutorial aggression creates a selective enforcement problem that raises due process concerns. The government distributed over $800 billion in PPP funds with minimal oversight, issued contradictory guidance about eligibility and permissible uses, told borrowers that loans would be forgiven if spent on payroll, then reversed course and began prosecuting business owners who relied on those representations when their documentation didn’t satisfy standards that didn’t exist when they applied. When thousands of Delaware businesses received PPP loans with similar documentation issues but only specific cases faced criminal charges, the question isn’t just whether your application was technically accurate; it’s why your case was selected for prosecution when thousands of others with comparable or worse conduct were not. Attorneys who defend federal cases across multiple districts (like those at Spodek Law Group who have handled PPP fraud investigations from New Jersey to California to Delaware) understand how different U.S. Attorney’s Offices approach identical conduct, which provides critical context when negotiating with Delaware prosecutors about whether charges are warranted.
Your Choices in the Next 30 to 60 Days
If the SBA flagged your loan, here’s what happens next. The Small Business Administration’s Office of Inspector General conducts an initial audit using automated systems that compare your PPP application to IRS records, state unemployment data, and banking records looking for discrepancies. When the OIG believes fraud occurred, they refer the case to the FBI’s Wilmington Resident Agency, which opens a criminal investigation that typically lasts 6 to 18 months before the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Wilmington decides whether to file charges. During this window, federal agents will likely contact you or your business, asking you to “clarify” information on your application or “explain” discrepancies they’ve identified. This is the most dangerous moment of the entire process. Anything you say will be used to build the criminal case against you and any misstatement you make (even an honest mistake about dates or amounts) creates a separate federal charge under 18 U.S.C. § 1001 for making false statements to federal investigators.
Your decision points: Do you speak to federal agents when they contact you? No. Invoke your Fifth Amendment right to remain silent, politely decline to answer questions, and state that you want to consult with an attorney before any interview. Do you voluntarily make restitution to the SBA, repaying the loan in full, thinking this will convince prosecutors you weren’t trying to commit fraud? This won’t prevent charges; recent Delaware cases show prosecution proceeded despite restitution efforts. Do you wait until you’re formally charged before hiring an attorney? No. By the time charges are filed, the window to negotiate and prevent prosecution has closed. Former federal prosecutors, like those at Spodek Law Group, understand the investigation phase from the government’s perspective. They know what evidence gaps exist that can be exploited, which witnesses are unreliable, what exculpatory evidence can be presented before charges are filed to convince prosecutors they can’t prove intent beyond a reasonable doubt. This knowledge is most valuable before the U.S. Attorney’s Office commits to prosecution, not after.
Delaware Penalties Based on Recent Cases
Defendants sentenced in Delaware federal court in 2024 and 2025 provide clear benchmarks for what you’re facing. Small loans ($150,000 to $300,000) generated sentences of 18 to 30 months federal prison, as evidenced by Michael Coleman’s $150,000 case and Shatoya Moss’s 18-month sentence. Medium loans ($500,000 to $1 million) generated 30 to 60 months, with Crandall Speights receiving 70 months for $900,000 in fraudulent proceeds. Large loans ($1 million to $10 million) generated 60 to 96 months, as Jady Solano received 80 months for his $9.1 million scheme. These aren’t statutory maximums—wire fraud carries up to 20 years per count, and violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1014 (false statements to financial institutions) carry up to 30 years and $1 million in fines—but actual sentences imposed by Delaware federal judges in recent PPP cases cluster within these ranges based on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines’ fraud loss table.
Beyond prison time, you face mandatory restitution for the full loan amount. Moss must repay $578,133.09. Speights faces restitution for over $900,000. Solano’s personal gain of $1.4 million will require full repayment. You also face supervised release after prison (typically 3 years for fraud cases) and civil penalties under the False Claims Act that allow the government to seek treble damages plus $27,894 per false statement. A $500,000 loan with three false statements on the application generates $1.5 million in civil damages plus $83,682 in penalties, for total civil liability of $1.58 million even if you’ve already been criminally prosecuted and paid restitution. The founders understood that when government enforcement targets conduct that was widely tolerated or encouraged at the time it occurred, retroactive prosecution violates fundamental fairness. The pandemic PPP program embodied that problem. Business owners were told to apply quickly with minimal documentation, that loans would be forgiven, that the program was designed to help them survive, and now the same government that made those promises is prosecuting borrowers for relying on them. Having defended federal fraud cases that attracted national media attention (like Todd Spodek’s representation of Anna Delvey, whose story became the Netflix series “Inventing Anna”), the firm brings experience with cases where public perception and prosecutorial pressure create challenges beyond the evidence. Federal criminal procedure is uniform across all districts. The Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, Federal Rules of Evidence, and U.S. Sentencing Guidelines apply identically in Wilmington, Dover, Manhattan, and Los Angeles, which means geographic proximity to your courthouse doesn’t provide any procedural advantage and local connections matter far less than federal expertise and experience defending these specific types of cases. The Sixth Amendment guarantees effective counsel, not local counsel. Effectiveness in federal fraud cases requires understanding how U.S. Attorney’s Offices evaluate cooperation, how to present exculpatory evidence during grand jury proceedings, how to negotiate pre-indictment resolutions, and how to litigate suppression motions and proffer agreements. None of which are Delaware-specific skills. What nationwide federal practice provides is comparison and negotiating power: when your attorney has negotiated with dozens of U.S. Attorney’s Offices and defended PPP fraud cases in multiple districts, they can demonstrate to Delaware federal prosecutors that similar conduct in other jurisdictions resulted in declinations or reduced charges, creating pressure for consistent treatment rather than arbitrary enforcement. Spodek Law Group’s nationwide federal practice (representing clients from New Jersey to California to Delaware) provides insight into how different U.S. Attorney’s Offices evaluate identical evidence, what mitigating factors each office values, and which arguments resonate with prosecutors who have discretion over charging decisions.
Immediate Action That Protects You
If you’ve received any communication from the SBA, FBI Wilmington Resident Agency, or U.S. Attorney’s Office about your PPP loan: first, do not speak to federal agents without an attorney present. Invoke your Fifth Amendment right to remain silent, politely decline to answer questions, and state clearly that you want to consult with counsel before any interview. Second, preserve all documents related to the PPP loan, including the application, supporting documentation, bank records, payroll records, and any communications with lenders or the SBA. Destroying evidence is obstruction of justice under 18 U.S.C. § 1519 and creates separate federal charges. Third, don’t make voluntary restitution or contact the SBA offering to “fix” any issues without first consulting with experienced federal defense counsel; these actions can be used against you as evidence of consciousness of guilt. Fourth, understand that loan amounts as small as $150,000 are being prosecuted—Michael Coleman’s case proves no amount is too small to trigger federal charges.
Contact Spodek Law Group at 212-300-5196 for immediate consultation about your Delaware PPP fraud investigation.
Sources
1 United States District Court for the District of Delaware, Criminal Case Statistics (2023-2025)
2 Department of Justice, “Former Wilmington Tax Preparer Sentenced to 80 Months in Federal Prison” (July 28, 2025), https://www.justice.gov/usao-de/pr/former-wilmington-tax-preparer-sentenced-80-months-federal-prison
3 Department of Justice, “Former Police Officer Pleads Guilty to PPP Fraud” (February 1, 2024), https://www.justice.gov/usao-de/pr/former-police-officer-pleads-guilty-ppp-fraud-0
4 Federal Lawyers, “NJ SBA Fraud PPP Loan Fraud Defense Lawyers” (2025), https://www.federallawyers.com/nj-sba-fraud-ppp-loan-fraud-defense-lawyers/
5 Federal Lawyer, “What are the Charges for PPP Loan Fraud?” (2025), https://federal-lawyer.com/what-are-the-charges-for-ppp-loan-fraud/
6 U.S. Sentencing Commission, 2025 Guidelines Manual, § 2B1.1
7 NJ Criminal Attorneys, “Alabama EIDL Loan Fraud Lawyers” (2025), https://www.njcriminalattorneys.com/alabama-eidl-loan-fraud-lawyers/
8 United States Courts, “District of Delaware” (2025), https://www.ded.uscourts.gov/